Gas odor but no gas leak??

[William T. Misegades]

During my inspection today, I came about a a room in which the water heater and the furnace was. There was also a gas manifold on the opposit from the furnace. There was a gas smell in that room but my TIF 8800 didn't detect anything around the units, manifold or in the air . (no, I did not turn on the detector inside that room) Anybody ever come up with something like that? How would you right it up?

[clambert2]

If there was a gas odor then there must have been a gas leak. Have them call the gas company

[Sean Fogarty]

Where did you eat lunch?

[Stephen W. Stanczyk]

Originally Posted by sfogarty

Where did you eat lunch?

Refrieds, redux

[William T. Misegades]

Originally Posted by sfogarty

Where did you eat lunch?

I knew I should not have eaten that pizza taco!!!

[James H. Bushart]

Originally Posted by wmisegades

During my inspection today, I came about a a room in which the water heater and the furnace was. There was also a gas manifold on the opposit from the furnace. There was a gas smell in that room but my TIF 8800 didn't detect anything around the units, manifold or in the air . (no, I did not turn on the detector inside that room) Anybody ever come up with something like that? How would you right it up?

I did a commercial inspection last summer in a church that had a strong odor of natural gas near a cooking stove that did not measure on my gas sniffer ... but I did record 48 ppm in carbon monoxide. This level is high enough to make people sick yet too low to set off a CO alarm.

[Dan Bowers, CMI]

Quit worrying about this... Send the realtor in with lighted match.

Seriously, call the gas company and quit thinking about who, what, where, etc

[Bob Elliott]

I got yelled at for calling in the gas company once when I could not locate a leak while working for Sears (before detectors).
Turned out to be defective elbows from China that had pinhole leaks.

[Roy D. Cooke, Sr]

Originally Posted by wmisegades

During my inspection today, I came about a a room in which the water heater and the furnace was. There was also a gas manifold on the opposit from the furnace. There was a gas smell in that room but my TIF 8800 didn't detect anything around the units, manifold or in the air . (no, I did not turn on the detector inside that room) Anybody ever come up with something like that? How would you right it up?

(" How would you right it up")
Smelled Gas in Furnace area Reported this to gas company .
and move on ... Roy

[KEVIN WOOD]

It is being sucked in at the basement level or the bottom of the home and is probably at the union outside. I found two so far just as the weather got cold. The reason is the cold temperature changes, but that does not apply where you are. You will not detect it with your tiff 8800 because you are not close enough to the source.

[Jeffrey R. Pope]

I was called into a utility room by a concerned client where there was a relatively strong odor of natural gas. The room housed the water heater and laundry facilities, and was directly adjacent to the kitchen where the odor was also present, but much less noticeable.

The house was all electric.

[Jeffrey R. Jonas]

Originally Posted by jpope

I was called into a utility room by a concerned client where there was a relatively strong odor of natural gas. The room housed the water heater and laundry facilities, and was directly adjacent to the kitchen where the odor was also present, but much less noticeable.

The house was all electric.

Wouldn't be the first time a home was built over a NG pipeline.

[Robert W. Jude]

I did a house where every fitting on the water heater set my Tiff off. gas company was called to repair and they couldn't find any of those leaks. there were a couple others that they were able to find, one at the meter and one at the furnace.

[Patrick Carter]

Did a energy audit in Tonganoxie, Kansas last August, and was getting some whifs of gas odor when checking gas lines for leakage, but yet the TIF 8800 wasn't picking it up. After looking around found a capped off Natural Gas line behind the electric clothes dryer that had a very slight leak, the old gas line (that had served a gas clothes dryer in the past) had a branch valvethat was in the open position, so turned it to the closed position and had the client get it serviced... It has been my experience that the TIF doesn't pick up gas leakage unless in very close proximity to the line, valve or a pipe junction...

[Michael Larson]

mercaptan( the smell added to orderless natural gas) is detectable by the human nose in extremely small ppm.

It is very difficult to find very small gas leaks that are far below any hazardous levels.


Your nose is much more sensitive than the Tiff.